June 30 - Sadly for Odette, this morning is the dreaded church tour. Start out with one just down the street, the Basilica Notre-Dame de l’Assomption.
Walk across town to another attraction, a Russian Orthodox church.
Take a tram and a bus across town to the Caves of Lazaret, on a scenic rocky headland east of the city. It is here that a cave was discovered in the 19th C and used by a local resident for cold storage. Later, archaeologists went in and discovered that the thick soil and rock column at the base of the cave had preserved human habitation from 170,000 to 130,000 BCE. After this, a landslide appears to have sealed it off. In the millennia prior to human cave use, it was underwater (that is, before the last Ice Age when sea levels were much higher).
The tour of the cave was with a woman who tried her best with English, then handed it over to the pre-recorded show that also did a sort of light show, including human figures projected on the walls.
There were many things found in the cave, including many animal parts (some from animals who lived here when humans did not), shards from tools, and some human skull fragments (which are thought to be from a proto-Neanderthal.
Walking back along the shore, we notice that the waves have gotten quite large. Police are telling people to get off the seashore rocks and tiny beaches of this area.
We take a short bus ride to Colline du Chateau and walk it for real, stopping at the viewpoint and viewing the ruins of a cathedral from the 11th C.
Odette finally get her chance to be in the sea. From the viewpoint I comment that it doesn’t look so good. Waves are smashing the rocky shore with a lot of energy.
The waves start coming in so large that I see people being thrown down into the rocks down the beach from us. It doesn’t look like any fun at all. As we are sitting around on the shore, a couple of men go racing out into the surf, and we realize someone is floating face down just beyond the surf zone. One guy is already at the body when the lifeguard gets over there, seemingly hesitant to get herself in the water with the life preserver. They haul him in with considerable difficulty, as the waves are so punishing. Finally, they lay him out, and we decline to join the mass of onlookers. Given the amount of time he spent with his face in the water, I figure he will be lucky to live.
According to a news article Janet found the next day, it turned out he did not. And he was not the only one to perish, as another body was found nearby later in the day.